As well-known in the art, RFID is an electronic device which is attached to or incorporated into an object, a living body and the like. Generally, the RFID includes an electronic chip (ubiquitous chip) for providing a computing function, an antenna for a wireless communication, and a sensor for detecting an ambient environment.
Recently, there have rapidly been proposed lots of models using a mobile terminal in which an RFID reader is incorporated therein. Such models read RFID data received from an RF tag attached to (or incorporated into) an object through the use of the mobile terminal, and transmit the read RFID data to a server for information management or the like, which is a host system at a remote location, to thereby provide desired services.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example in which a mobile communication system includes a mobile terminal having an RFID reader.
As shown, the mobile communication system includes an object 102 with an RFID tag attached thereto, a mobile terminal 104, a mobile communication network base station 106, a data network 108, and an information management server 110.
The mobile terminal 104, which incorporates an RFID reader therein, receives an RF signal from the RFID tag attached to the object 102 to read RFID data from the RF signal and modulates the RFID data into a signal suitable for wireless transmission. The modulated signal is then wirelessly transmitted to the information management server 110 via a mobile communication network, i.e., the mobile communication network base station 106 and the data network 108. In addition, the mobile terminal 104 transmits, to the RFID tag attached to the object 102, the RFID data provided from the information management server 110 via the data network 108 and the mobile communication base station 106, thereby allowing new RFID data to be written in the RFID tag of the object 102 or to update the RFID data written in the RFID tag of the object 102.
The information management server 110 serves to send and receive RFID data to and from the mobile terminal 104 via the data network 108 and the mobile communication base station 106. That is, the information management server 110 receives RFID data via the mobile communication network base station 106 and the data network 108 and transmits the RFID data to a subscriber address (e.g., IP address) transmitted along with the RFID data, or receives RFID data transmitted from a subscriber address and transmits it to the mobile terminal 104 via the data network 108 and the mobile communication network base station 106.
As described above, in order to read an RF signal from the RFID tag attached to the object by using the mobile terminal incorporating an RFID reader, in other words, in order for the mobile terminal to read an RFID signal, a user selects such a corresponding function as the RFID read mode, on a menu screen through an interface (multi-stage interface) having a tree structure, to make the mobile terminal be switched to the RFID read mode and then reads the RF signal from the RFID tag attached to the object. In this connection, the RFID read mode indicates a state where power is being supplied to the RFID reader. In modes other than the RFID read mode, no power is supplied to the RFID reader for preventing unnecessary power consumption.
However, since the above-described method switches the mobile terminal to the RFID read mode through the multi-stage interface on the menu screen, it has a problem that there is an inconvenience of use due to a user's frequent operation. As a result, this problem causes dissatisfaction of consumers of mobile terminal users on services.
To solve this problem of the prior art, a method for switching a mobile terminal to an RFID read mode by using a preset hotkey may be considered. However, this method cannot be a fundamental solution when considering the fact that it is difficult in reality to design a mobile terminal having a lot of functions such that all the functions can be accessed by respective hotkeys.
As another measure for solving the above-described problem of the prior art, a method for always supplying power to an RFID reader built in a mobile terminal, i.e., a method for allowing a mobile terminal to be continuously maintained in the RFID read mode, can be taken into account. This method, however, has another problem that power consumption is unnecessarily increased.
To overcome such problems of the prior art, “A mobile terminal having an adaptive power control function and a control method thereof” has been proposed in Korean Patent Application No. 10-2006-26072. The power control method for a mobile terminal disclosed in this patent application will be discussed below.
First of all, it is checked whether a mobile terminal is in a folder open state, a flip open state, or a slid open state to identify whether the terminal is in an operating mode or in a standby mode. When the mobile terminal is in the standby mode, power supply to the RFID reader is interrupted, and when the mobile terminal is in the operating mode, power is supplied to the RFID reader.
In this patent application, when it is desired to switch the mobile terminal having an RFID reader to the RFID read mode, such switching is not implemented in a complicated multi-stage menu interface, and thus, the convenience of services utilizing RFID can be greatly increased. Moreover, when a folder, a flip, or a slide is in a closed state, power supply to the RFID chip is interrupted, thereby reducing unnecessary power consumption required for executing the RFID read mode.
However, in this patent application, the procedure of checking whether the mobile terminal is in a folder open state, a flip open state, or a slid open state is performed during automatically switching the RFID reader from the standby mode to the read mode. Therefore, there is a lack of unified power control because different standards are applied depending on the design characteristics of the mobile terminal.
Another defect is that there is no control procedure for power saving after the switching of the RFID reader from the standby mode to the read mode.